Ivory Light
by public static void
Summary: Somehow Cormac's glance pierced her and she felt the touch of ivory light from a distant star, and her hands became a fumbling mess that almost dropped her med-kit.


Their ship was having difficulties. A red light lit the way from the deck to the lower levels, where the different engines worked without rest; the crowd dressed in purple robes, the Engineering Unspeakables in charge, impassively gave orders to the crew and lower-ranking technicians. Romilda, the medic of the level, stared at them in awe as they went on with their work.

It was her first flight that far from her planet. The previous travels had been short; a week spent in Pluto's moon to get used to the gravity or a three-day stay in the boundaries of the heliosphere. This journey was different. The first month passed by as if it were nothing, but this week had been exhausting. It got to the point that Romilda stopped following a twenty-four-hour clock and just went with the flow.

She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking that she deserved a moment of rest between the chaos. Yesterday had died one of the passengers they picked up in an asteroid near Beta Tucanae. Their ship had been pulled into the star system and they had barely survived.

Captain Granger had called them Borgs and went on talking about having read about them before. For Romilda, though, they were a new sight.

She had never seen individuals like them, who blinked at the same time and breathed in unison. For a while, she thought she could treat them as one, but when the first one died and the other two still didn't wake up from their coma... Well, the other two followed soon after. The fourth was still a mystery.

The other two medics, Healer Malfoy and Healer Abbott, didn't know what to do. Romilda had a faint idea, but she would not share it with those who didn't consider her a colleague as much as they thought her a burden. It wasn't her fault that she was younger, and for all their complaints they still hadn't figured out the ability of the Borgs.

Romilda had. The Fourth Borg, who still remained in a medically induced sleep, took his appearance from another man of the crew.

Cormac McLaggen was a wizard who attended the same school Romilda had; they had even been in the same training voyages once or twice before he graduated three years before her.

With a look at the situation around her, Romilda decided to search for Cormac McLaggen in the hopes of finding out why he became the target of that particular alien.

The engineers kept ordering the technicians around, and Romilda took her time as she walked around the level to see if the man she was trying to find was among them. It would have been useful if she had been given access to the records of the ship, but as it was her first time in a voyage of this magnitude and with so many people on the crew, Healer Malfoy thought it would be better if she had no access.

"A precaution," he had drawled. "In case you think space is too much and you want to go back to Earth. Less paperwork."

She growled under her breath. She was a phenomenal woman who was too pretty to be considered a good Healer, and the thought of prejudice bothered her greatly. She hadn't chosen her body, but she chose her career and her speciality and wanted to be respected for that.

With a huff, she shook those thoughts from her mind. There! Sitting down lazily, was the man. She remembered the angle of his jaw and the curl of his hair: she had seen them in the Borg's features just last night, even if she hadn't seen him in at least three weeks.

She approached Cormac McLaggen with a confident step and an air of arrogance around her. When his eyes met hers, she knew it wasn't working. Somehow Cormac's glance pierced her and she felt the touch of ivory light from a distant star, and her hands became a fumbling mess that almost dropped her med-kit.

"Romilda Vane," he said when she was near enough, surprising Romilda. She recognised him because she had never been indifferent to his handsome face and the grace he exuded, but to be recognised by him when nobody else gave a damn about her in the damned ship turned her took her thoughts to another direction before he raised a brow.

Romilda shook her head.

"Why aren't you working? The crashed engines won't get repaired by themselves."

He snorted. "I've told my superiors I'm not feeling well."

"Is that true?" she asked with one hand on the stethoscope she carried and practically checking up Cormac for notorious symptoms of whatever the Borg did.

"Of course not, Vane," he scoffed. "I'm just tired of pretending I can do shit about the engines. I didn't study all those years to be sent here. I can wear a black robe just as well as Captain Granger can. I should be on deck."

Romilda rolled her eyes. She should have expected that.

"What do you know of the Borg race?" Romilda asked directly, not wanting to play the same game the leaders of the ship liked. She wanted information, not power-plays. When he frowned her heart sped up.

"Why?"

The defensiveness on his voice didn't reassure her in the slightest. Romilda looked around. The chaos continued and nobody could hear them; she sighed and looked at his green eyes.

"A Borg has your face and your voice," Romilda deadpanned, watching his every move and gesture. The slight narrowing of his eyes and his hands becoming fists before he relaxed his shoulders didn't elude her. "Do you know why?"

"Are you sure is a Borg and not one of the Weasley twins androids trying to make me look bad in front of our superiors?"

His voice actually sounded honest, as if he really wanted her to believe he hadn't anything to do with it.

"I'm sure it's a Borg."

"And you're sure it has assimilated me? Then why am I here?" Cormac asked and for the first time, Romilda regretted being with him. "If I was assimilated then I shouldn't be here, trying to escape my work and speaking with you, Vane."

Romilda blushed. The way he said her surname made her considerably angry; she had thought he would see past the obvious link between her family name and her looks.

"What is assimilation?"

"A Healer who doesn't know what to look for in an assimilated patient?" Cormac laughed. "Dear girl, you know nothing."

He laughed at her. Romilda was seeing red, but she stayed there and crossed her arms over her chest. "Would you enlighten me?"

Cormac became silent at her words, but the mirth in his demeanour didn't fade. "You actually think there is a Borg who looks like me? No. It isn't possible because assimilation is a process that would kill my mind and make me part of a hive mind. It doesn't create a doppelganger."

Romilda felt defeated. "Then Captain Granger is going in the wrong direction," she muttered. "She really thinks they are Borgs."

"They?" Cormac asked, interested.

She shook her head. "Forget about it. I was wrong. Healer Malfoy was right; I have no place here."

Cormac put a hand on her cheek. "Hey," he said with a tender voice Romilda never thought that could come from him. "You're a good Healer, Romilda. Last week you saved my partner's eye, remember? And even if you were a lousy Healer, you're a good person. Great, even! Not everyone would investigate something like that on their own. I know I wouldn't."

There were tears in her eyes, but she smiled at Cormac's words.

"It was only to prove them wrong."

"Well, you still know something they don't," he said, dropping his hand and making Romilda want to have it against her face again, leaving her skin tingling pleasantly. "They still think it's a Borg."

She smiled and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her robes. "You're right, Cormac. I'll get going."

"In the meantime, I'll hide in my room. Maybe my doppelganger wants to pay an unwanted visit."

She laughed at him, always the childish guy trying to make others laugh.

"Maybe we can have dinner together after all this is sorted?" she offers with a shy smile. It had been a long time since she felt like that, but Cormac left her feeling good about herself.

"Whenever you want, Vane."

This time, she didn't mind him saying her name.


End file.
